AN: In no way am I connected to Rooster Teeth
As it happened, Ruby and Mercury were back three minutes before Emerald and Yang.
So ha.
They were barely into the afternoon, but Ruby had already decided this was one of the best days of her life. It was fun, had mystery and all her family were fine.
"I'm going to call your fox form Fluffy."
"Really." Mercury sounded more resigned than anything else.
"Really?" Emerald asked much more merrily as they stepped back out into the sunshine, now on their way to their main objective.
"Yep."
"It's not that bad Merc," Yang stretched. "There are worse things to be named after than a huge three headed dog."
Ruby scowled at her, but Merc smiled. That was not why Ruby had named him Fluffy and they all knew it.
Still, it wasn't like Mercury could tell many people about Hagrid's Fluffy, though Ruby couldn't really tell people about fluffy Fox Mercury either. Most wouldn't believe her and those that did were likely to be enemies.
They came across another pack of Beowolves. There were nine this time.
They didn't last nine seconds.
"Aww…"
Then an Alpha Beowulf came running out of the trees, snarling.
Bouncing on her heels, Ruby zipped straight towards it. In a move she had practiced a thousand times, she spun around like a top.
"Spin, spin, spin, spin, spin!"
Whee!
She skidded to a halt, shaking her head.
Ruby had no idea how many times she had spun, but she didn't feel as dizzy as she normally did when she tried that.
Cool.
Ruby looked back.
The Alpha Beowulf stood strong for a moment. But then its arms dropped off. Its legs collapsed and separated from the body. The head flopped to the ground a good foot away from the rest of it.
"You made that look easy Ruby," Yang grinned with a thumbs up.
"Well, it was easy."
Killing Grimm didn't seem so hard anymore.
The Griffons had been a challenge and Mercury had done most of the work there. Ruby thought she could have done it on her own, but it would have taken a lot longer. She was sure she could have managed the Beringal too, especially as it was only the size of a gorilla rather than the thing that attacked them at Initiation.
That little voice in the back of her mind told her that the Beringal in Initiation was too tough for her alone without some kind of assistance.
Ruby rubbed her eyes, telling that little voice to go away. She just needed a lot of practice against tougher opponents.
This wasn't their official second year mission. Ruby started to think what they should do for it. Last year, they had gone after Mountain Glenn because they knew there was a White Fang operation there. They didn't have anything to worry about this year.
Just before the ruins they were aiming for, there was a bridge. They looked at each other.
"We could just jump," Yang suggested. "This probably takes a while."
"Probably," Mercury agreed. "But what if this is sabotaged too?"
Leave it to Mercury to think of the worst case scenario.
"On top of that, the security node for this area is down," Emerald tagged on. "There could be other higher level Grimm nearby."
Ruby was fine with that. "Bridge it is."
Well, there were certainly a lot of Grimm that were attracted to the noise, but nothing very powerful. An Ursa was the highest level, but there were twelve of them. Ruby couldn't count the number of Beowolves and Creeps kept burrowing out of the ground. For once, they were actually dangerous rather than annoying.
This kind of gauntlet reminded Ruby of their last official mission, but she was going to be a little more careful than she had been then. That job was supposed to be for second years but this one was going to be for first years.
Maybe Professor Ozpin didn't realise how many Grimm there were. Ruby didn't think there were supposed to be this many and there definitely wasn't supposed to be Griffons and Beringals here.
Ruby still mostly worked on autopilot.
She had a feeling the others were doing the same.
It was fun though. Every time before, they separated into their own mini-fights. They didn't tend to get involved with someone else's fight. This time though, they piggy-backed off each other's moves. Just like they had practiced for the Vytal Festival.
Most of the Grimm died in one hit.
A few were lucky in that they didn't get hit directly so they lasted a few seconds longer. But then they would get hit by someone else and they didn't survive that.
"That counts as mine Mercury."
"Oh please. I killed it fair and square."
The only issue was going to be the points game they were having.
"How many Ruby?" Emerald asked, choosing to ignore the two main troublemakers for now.
"I'm on 53." A blast from Crescent Rose. "Make that 54. You?"
"45." The bridge had fully extended now, but the family were having far too much fun to pay it any attention. "Enjoying the day so far?"
"Sure. Any ideas for what you want for our proper second year mission?" Ruby was leaning towards a mission away from Vale. Maybe away from the continent. It would be cool to see what other areas of the world were like.
"I don't mind. The first thing we need to decide is if we only want to kill Grimm or if we want to do something else."
Ruby hummed. "It is fun, but I think we need something a little more challenging."
"How about we finish up today before deciding that? I've got the feeling we've got quite a while to go."
Ruby let out a scoff. "Oh please. We're almost done." Emerald just gave her a look. "What? It's not like we're going to find out who sabotaged the nodes."
"Well, they did leave their signature or something behind. Maybe we will."
They both instantly stopped in sync.
Ruby frowned. She looked around and suddenly realised they had run out of Grimm to kill. "Oh."
"Still too many though," Mercury commented as he and Yang joined them. "Especially if they only moved in when the nodes went down and that wasn't that long ago."
"Along with the Griffons and Beringal," Yang added on. "Odd that there are no Death Stalkers though."
"Or Nevermores."
That hadn't occurred to Ruby. She shrugged. "Maybe we just haven't seen them." The Emerald Forest was huge after all.
Mercury shrugged in acceptance. "Not much farther now."
It wasn't far and the only Grimm that kept following them were Creeps. Annoyingly, they were more interested in playing 'Whack-a-Grimm' than actually attacking. It was normally the other way around and the annoyance was due to how easy they were to kill.
The second and final security node was in the middle of a wide platform like thing. Ruby dashed around it and saw that odd box on it that had been on the other one.
"We got another one."
Then Ruby caught sight of a big cube like thing nearby. She approached to have a closer look. It almost looked like… "Is this a cage?" Not one she had seen, but it looked like one. It was easily big enough for her to fit in.
Mercury walked around it. "Yeah. Interesting." He had something in mind. Then he shrugged. "Right. I'll take a look. Don't see any Grimm around, so you're going to have to entertain yourselves." He walked over to the node and pulled the odd box off without a care.
After another look around, Ruby still didn't see any Grimm. So she began to circle the cage. There weren't any animals around that Ruby knew of, so this must be to catch Grimm.
But why would someone want to catch Grimm?
Ruby poked it.
The open wall snapped shut.
"Wasn't me!" That was an automatic reaction.
Yang appeared by her side instantly. "No harm by the look of it Ruby."
"But why is it here?"
Mercury's scroll went off. Without looking up from whatever he was doing, he tossed it to Emerald.
"Emerald. How goes the hunt?"
"Grimm slaying is fine. But there are cages here with the same symbol. You could easily fit an Ursa Major in them."
"Very worrying. The symbol is from Merlot Industries." The trio standing around exchanged blank looks. "It's a little before your time. It was thought to have collapsed with Mountain Glenn."
"Physically or economically?" Mercury asked as he stood up. Apparently he was done. "What kind of company was it?"
"Both. It was a research and development company. At one point, their research into androids rivalled Atlas."
"Mountain Glenn and Grimm capture cages…They had a good reason for wanting androids." He grinned. "Anyone up for a trip to Mountain Glenn?"
"That's pretty far," Emerald commented. The huge Grimm aura Guardian appeared. "You're sure about that?"
"It's not going to drop us. Maybe a few people I don't like, but it likes us."
Ruby studied it, thinking. Then she matched his grin. "I'm up for it. Can I try something?"
Emerald and Yang exchanged nervous glances.
Mercury's eyes sparkled.
Despite their extermination last year, Mountain Glenn was just as infested with Grimm as it had been before.
"I think I'm going to be sick."
Mercury chuckled. He didn't think Yang's face could go that green.
Ruby's idea had been crazy. Her logic was that the Guardian Form was created from Mercury's aura, which was connected to his soul, which was connected to Emerald's and Ruby's. Therefore, Ruby's Semblance should work with it as that worked off her aura, which was connected to her soul, which was connected to Mercury's and Emerald's.
What had amazed Mercury was that she was apparently right.
The Grimm aura dragon had taken on some red streaks and had sped off at a pace Mercury couldn't manage on his own. However, as he was the one controlling it and not Ruby (for some bizarre reason), he had tried to keep it straight and within the sound barrier. Mostly failed the first but did manage the second with some effort.
Being a little more used to getting thrown around, Emerald didn't look as bad. She still seemed a little dizzy, but she managed to stay on her feet at least.
Her original words to Ruby's idea when she heard it: "So utterly ridiculous that, with our luck, is probably and annoyingly going to work."
She wasn't wrong.
But it was very convenient to get around Remnant quickly.
"You okay Em?" Mercury asked, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice.
Emerald straightened, stretched as if she had just taken a bus ride, gave him the middle finger and strolled towards the poor Boarbatusk saps that were going to bear the brunt of her annoyance.
"Can we do that again?" Ruby asked him with a grin.
Mercury looked at her, looked at Yang who was only now returning back to normal colour, looked at Emerald who was slicing Grimm as if they were cheese and looked back at Ruby.
Her smile faded and she pouted. "I didn't mean right now."
Mercury chuckled, shaking his head slightly. Ruby then gave him a hug for some reason and joined Yang for some Grimm slaying fun.
They could kill Grimm until the current Ozpin and the next one died of old age; they would just keep coming back here. Still, it would keep Emerald's anger off him for a while so Mercury wasn't going to bring it up.
There had been a website that had a very good map of Mountain Glenn with annotations for when it was still functional for 'historic purposes'. Mountain Glenn's rubbish connection didn't let him get that far and while he had had a brief look before they flew here, he had known that some buildings weren't here anymore. Not very useful when trying to find one in particular.
One bar...Not enough for an internet search but should be okay for a voice only call.
Even then, that signal could drop at any point.
You would think the amount of times they send students out here, they would get that sorted.
It didn't matter. There would be enough provided they didn't go underground.
While Mercury was calling Port, he was hoping to speak to Oobleck. Port obviously had the same idea as it wasn't him that picked up. Oobleck sounded very excited and a little relieved, which was not much of a surprise when Mercury cared to think on it.
"Remedy. Good. I was worried there had been a problem with…the trip."
Give the damage the other aura Grimm dragon had done, Mercury was surprised he wasn't getting a scolding. "None whatsoever." Emerald and Yang's complaints not included. "We're where the airship dropped us off last year. Where's Merlot Industries from here?"
"You wouldn't know Mercury, but there have been some earthquake like activity near and in Mountain Glenn since then. I'll sent the coordinates to your scroll and you can decide how to proceed from there."
Earthquake activity?
There had been a random hole in the road that Ruby fell into or it collapsed under her, but that had been a year ago and an isolated incident. During his brief search for her, he hadn't seen any others so it was likely the only one. If there had been multiple earthquake like activity somewhat recently…
"Dr Oobleck, we're going underground for a while. We'll call once we're out or if something comes up. Maybe." If that activity had been numerous and recent, there could be an external event or person causing it.
"…Very well. Be careful Mercury."
"We will." He hung up.
Cinder and the White Fang had been seen in Forever Fall. However, he knew that Cinder had an affinity for Grimm just like he did now. He personally believed that was because of Salem, not Cinder herself. Either way, someone working for Salem wouldn't need Grimm capture cages. They would just be ordered and they would obey.
So this was someone else entirely.
Or it could be Watts, who Salem had referred to as 'Doctor' though not what kind. He was certainly loyal to Salem, but him almost studying that creepy jellyfish thing…
Mercury didn't mind the Grimm he knew of. What he did mind was that jellyfish thing. It was the only one he wouldn't even try to influence out of curiosity and would destroy on sight.
Glad I never went anywhere near it…
Would Watts capture some Grimm to study them? Or was it only that one he was interested in?
Thinking a little more on it, Mercury took Watts off the 'maybe list' onto the 'technically possible but ridiculously unlikely list'. Watts had worked for Atlas, not Merlot Industries. They were in two completely different continents.
Qrow had been remarkably annoyed to learn more about Watts from Mercury, who had been told of it by Zephyr during his imprisonment, than Ironwood who still had documents with Watts' signature. When it came to seeing the big picture, Ironwood was hopeless.
Now that he knew about the big picture, Mercury knew exactly how absurd it was thinking that Salem would be afraid of toy robots and at the time, Ironwood had known about her and Mercury hadn't. He had been the only one in the room that hadn't. It made their first argument at the Vytal Festival even more ridiculous.
The girls were done with the ones in this area. They took that moment to reload.
"Girls, there's apparently been some earthquakes or something around here recently so it might be best to go underground for a while."
Ruby and Yang sighed in unison.
Emerald raised an eyebrow. "An innocent explanation?"
Mercury shrugged. "Mountain Glenn wasn't known for earthquakes before the previous months." Which might be why Ozpin was reluctant to decide who to send to investigate. Probably Oobleck himself.
In unison, Ruby and Yang turned to Emerald. She was quiet as she thought.
As a Maiden, Emerald would be able to sense an earthquake before it hit. How much before depended on how much attention she was paying. But if this wasn't an earthquake…
"Everyone does have flashlights, right?"
Mercury just shook his head. "Emerald, you should know better than to rely on a Faunus to bring the flashlight."
"We could use our scrolls," Yang offered.
"That flashlight app drains the battery too fast and we might need them later." Emerald rolled her eyes. "Next time, we're bringing a bag full of supplies. Including a flashlight. Still, you can rely on a Maiden to bring the fire."
Mercury frowned a little, but didn't say anything. He didn't agree with her showing her powers, even if they already suspected her. Mercury was quite sure there was enough reasonable doubt to make them not know for sure and that could make a big difference.
Though if it's the Relic of Knowledge in Haven during the Vytal Festival with Headmaster Lionheart as the mole…
He was getting a headache.
Emerald gave him a brief smile and hopped into a nearby hole before anyone could say anything.
Ruby hesitated only a second before following her.
Yang waited longer. She waved him over and, when he obeyed, put her hand on his arm. [Did she ever talk about being so…obvious since becoming a full Maiden?]
[No. I kind of hoped you had talked with her while I was recovering. We talked about other things connected to Maidens but I didn't think she'd do this.] Emerald was usually so careful.
Yang closed her eyes.
Maidens had an essence of previous Maidens; it came with the power. Was this due to something from Cinder or was Emerald that fed up of being afraid that she had just decided 'screw it'?
He wanted to believe it was the latter.
If he was right, it didn't matter if they found out for sure. Either way, they would investigate when they arrived at Haven next year. So right now, he wasn't going to say anything.
"Mercury. Get down here."
"Quickly."
Yang and Mercury exchanged a glance that said 'what could have happened in five seconds?'
With their luck, a lot.
Mercury dropped down, ready for battle.
What he hadn't been expecting was a Creep with a green back to suddenly explode. The greenish goo then soaked into the ground in an instant, before the Grimm had a chance to disappear.
"Well. That was certainly different." And fascinating.
Salem hadn't done that to her Grimm.
"Yeah," Ruby mused. "I wonder if there are any others."
In the darkness, beyond the sunlight spraying in, Mercury could make out another odd Grimm. This one was different and almost certainly more of a fight. There was a lot more green and it almost seemed bigger than the original. It hadn't seen them yet and oddly enough, hadn't been attracted by the bizarre Grimm exploding.
"I see another one, but it's an Alpha Beowulf. Or it was at one point."
Yang folded her arms. "They weren't here before. Think we should follow their trail?"
"It's in the direction we planned to go." Maybe the odd Creeps were the reason for the earthquake like activity.
They were a lot more cautious this time. This wasn't an ordinary Grimm and if the bizarre cannon fodder exploded and could cause a lot of damage, what could a bizarre Alpha Beowulf do?
"Let's get it over here," Emerald stated. "I don't fancy fighting something that unknown in the dark."
That…was a fair point. Mercury would have no trouble, but they would. Unlike last time, these tunnels didn't have lighting that worked. The White Fang must have fixed the ones on the train tracks.
Ruby spun and implanted Crescent Rose into the ground. Her sniper rifle echoed throughout the tunnels.
It certainly got the weird Grimm's attention. It aggravated it, but didn't seem to damage it at all. With a roar that sounded exactly like the original, it charged.
Mercury ran to match it.
It pounced from a very impressive distance away.
Mercury jumped higher, stomped his boot on its head, delivered a point blank range Dust round straight into its skull and landed easily.
It crashed into the floor.
Then got up, shook its head and roared at him again.
Okay. Definitely more durable than normal Alpha Beowolves.
It turned back to the girls. Mercury expected that.
What he didn't expect was it to raise its arms, pound them into the ground and…
That's impressive.
Pillars spiked out of the ground at a remarkable speed, heading straight for the girls. They were different heights, but easily taller than him. The path was completely straight; maybe it couldn't curve. The pikes also stopped appearing when its arms were removed from the ground. Could it still bite in that stance?
It might have been a shock, but instinct kicked in before their brains needed to register. They managed to dodge out of the way before it hit.
"What was that?!" Yang yelled.
"They have a few tricks up their sleeves," Mercury noted with a small smile. If that was what a mutated Alpha Beowulf could do, what could the mutated Ursa Major and higher do? Then he noticed something. "There's another one down there. I got it."
The others would really struggle to see this deep in without Emerald's flame.
Mercury didn't have that problem.
This will be fun. Let's see how durable that thing really is.
Something interesting that Mercury noted right away was that these bizarre Grimm didn't play well with others. Normally something the level of an Alpha Beowulf could form strategies with other Grimm, such as using younger Beowolves as buffer and the Creeps employing hit and run tactics with it picking up the pieces.
These mutated Grimm didn't do that.
It could certainly think and strategize, such as predicting where he was going to land and aiming a row of spikes to that location. But it wasn't cooperating with the other Grimm at all, normal or weird. Mercury could think of loads of strategies, but this was an individual attacker only; not a team player at all.
Come to think of it, that sums up the main two 'sides' well. Ozpin's side (normally) works together and while there may be disagreements, one picks up the slack if another fails. Salem's group cooperate, but they aren't united. It's multiple single units only in it for their own agenda and would never work together if they didn't have Salem.
…
If Salem was removed from the equation…
There would always be monsters in people. That was how it was and that was what Ruby just couldn't grasp. Though to be fair, there would always be heroes in people and that was what Mercury couldn't understand. They had agreed to disagree long ago.
But there was no way Cinder and Watts would work with each other if Salem didn't make them. Tyrian himself…
There would always be monsters, but they would be unfocused. Most of the legends would fade and stay legends. A large rabble wasn't as big of a problem as a small but organised group.
This thing was remarkably durable. It actually outclassed Ursa Major. It took a full minute for Mercury to take it down using only the basics.
The first one was still fighting the girls, though Emerald wasn't using Maiden power now for whatever reason.
After another minute, Yang gave up and allowed her Semblance to trigger. And then it still took twenty seconds to take down.
"That…was…awesome…" Typical Ruby.
"A damage sponge," Mercury decided. "Doesn't hit too much harder than an Alpha Beowulf though it has more variety. But the amount of damage it can take before it goes down is incredible."
Emerald came towards him. She stepped into the darkness without a care and didn't even try to create a flame to light her way. In fact, Mercury could see her eyes were closed.
She never made a wrong step. She walked straight up to him, reached out and gently rubbed his arm. His other arm went around her waist, pulling her a little closer. His little affiliation with Grimm didn't really work with them in groups and/or with other people around. He hadn't tested it yet, but he would get a lot of chances later. For now, keeping her close gave him a better view of past her.
[Mercury, are you sure you're up for this? You know we're not turning back now and there could be more.]
[There will be more.] Mercury was sure of that. He could make out one of the weird Creeps down another tunnel. [I'll be fine. I'm looking forward to this.]
[What if something goes wrong?]
[It won't. This is someone on their own. Nothing to do with Cinder or who she worked with.]
[That doesn't mean it's not dangerous.]
[Wouldn't be any fun otherwise.]
Emerald shook her head with a smile. Only then did she create a flame in her hand. When there was light to see, she opened her eyes. Mercury just blinked his to get used to the difference.
Like moths to a flame, Ruby and Yang immediately joined them.
"Everything okay?" Ruby asked, tilting her head a little.
"Just fine," Mercury responded. He pointed. "There are more that way. But it's not the way we planned to go."
"It might be the way we need to go though." Yang punched her fists together. "I say we follow them."
"Of course you do," Emerald rolled her eyes. "This time, I happen to agree. We didn't see anything off about the buildings last year and I think that whatever Merlot Industries are up takes longer than a year."
Mercury could agree with that.
"Then it's decided," Ruby nodded.
"Great. Dibs on the green Beowulf." With that, Yang took off.
Mercury rolled his eyes. "Go help her out Em. I'll play catch me if you can with the green Creeps."
"They explode after they go underground and if you kill them."
"I'll keep that in mind." The problem was the exploding; they could accidentally take out the supports of this particular cave. He needed to lure them away from the key pillars.
These things were atrocious at taking hits. In fact, Mercury thought these were even worse than the weakest Creeps.
The first two were no trouble. The others were closer to the girls, but far enough away to be spared the explosion. He could use the Dust rounds in his boots, but he wasn't made of money and his infinite supply of Dust was in his new handheld weapon.
So that's what he used.
The main 'handle' had a gun built into it and, due to where the Dust crystal was, this still worked even if the weapon was divided into two. That was his long range and he liked it a lot. It was definitely worth the four months it took to do.
Unfortunately, these things took long range hits even worse than they did physical hits.
Mercury backflipped back to put enough distance from one that had tunnelled up less than an inch in front of him.
This might be a little trickier than I thought.
These things ignored him, but wouldn't come closer when he tried to will them. He couldn't attack them long range because they just exploded and he was trying to avoid that where they were. Close range had the same main problem.
That left one solution.
Rather than an aura blade, Mercury decided to use the Dust crystal. He normally used ice or electricity long range, but he was more varied short range. Green Dust was nice when you wanted a whip like weapon. He was still working on using yellow Dust for that and that always had collateral damage whenever he tried.
The green Creeps immediately started to shake when the whip wrapped around them, but the few seconds it took gave him time to pull them to a better location. As it was using Dust and only required his aura (barely) to trigger it but not hold it, he didn't take any damage from said explosion.
Blake's technique had been easy to see, but difficult in practice. There was no doubting how effective it was and Marcus had given him some training with that kind of weapon, but not even as much as he had with a sword.
Which wasn't much help seeing as the aura blade has no weight.
It was quite fun to swing one green Creep into another or into a pack of whatever kind of Grimm happened to be together.
There were a lot of green Creeps. There was another green Alpha Beowulf heading this way from another tunnel. Was that one attracted by the noise when the last one ignored it?
A fireball smashed into it as it raised its arms to do that spike track.
It crashed through a wall.
"Emerald, I'm trying not to bring the place down around us."
"My hand slipped." She did not sound remorseful in the slightest.
Mercury swung one of the exploding Creeps onto the sponge Beowulf. It still got up afterwards. Three long range red and grey Dust mix shot finally took it out and, luckily, the little grenade like effect wasn't very wide. It only took out the rest of the wall Emerald had already half destroyed.
Smaller than the other times. Should experiment with that more.
Mercury hadn't really enjoyed Mountain Glenn the first time around. This time he was having a lot more fun. He had a new toy to try out (which Ruby very quickly saw and started to ask every question in existence starting with its name), these 'new' Grimm weren't ignoring him and it wasn't a one shot wonder on everything.
This was a Huntsman mission he would have signed up for.
Following the Grimm for absolutely ages opened up into…Forever Fall?
"Seriously?" Emerald asked. "Since when was Mountain Glenn connected to Forever Fall?"
Forever Fall normally needed an airship to get to, but the two places were very far apart. They might have travelled quite far and the tunnel directions did match the geography, but still.
"I thought the tunnels stopped at Vale City," Ruby frowned. "I mean, that was what Cinder wanted, right?"
"Well, the last tracks we followed weren't train tracks," Mercury pointed out. They had been far too small for that. "But maybe the tunnels we went through were unexplored. I didn't see any lights at all and I'm sure they were dug at a different time." Using the word 'dug' very lightly.
The others probably hadn't seen it as Emerald's flame hadn't reached the walls, but Mercury had seen the obvious difference. Not only had those tunnels been thinner, the damage to the walls suggested that it had been done by bombs rather than tools. They were new, but he didn't know how new.
There was yet another bizarre Alpha Beowulf waiting for them.
"You know, these are getting very common when you think about it," Mercury noted idly.
"Hardly," Yang scoffed. "How many have we run into?"
"Twelve."
"…Okay, you might have a point."
This one was in the sunlight, so Mercury reached for his scroll for a picture. Even with flash, the pictures taken underground were terrible. A weird oversized Creep came bouncing from the trees nearby.
Yang patiently waited for him to take the photo, nodded in approval and then leapt into battle.
Mercury stretched and joined her.
So hard to find a good fight these days.
The stroll through Forever Fall wasn't that different from their stroll through Mountain Glenn. The only difference was that it was much easier to see in the daylight.
Yang had learned the patterns of their attacks by now so they were easy to avoid. That didn't help with the amount of punishment they could take, but at least it wasn't as tough a challenge as they used to be.
She was wondering where they came from.
This time, she and Mercury were hanging back. They had killed plenty and Ruby wanted to take one on her own. Emerald had then stated the same of a second that had arrived.
While Yang wasn't worried about them, these battles were going to take quite a while. Emerald had decided not to use Maiden power, so she would take a while too.
Honestly, Yang was a little worried about Emerald.
"Where's the popcorn when you need it?" Mercury asked.
"You can go fetch some and be back before they're done." That Guardian Form made it very easy to get around.
"Ruin the feeling."
Yang couldn't argue with that. That was the main reason they weren't just breezing through these things with it. After all, how were they supposed to learn when they cheated? It wasn't like they were in any rush.
[So what do you think?]
[About?]
[Salem.]
He just raised an eyebrow to that, but he wasn't too surprised she knew. [Not involved.]
That was a relief. It was also exactly what they needed. [So what do you think? Someone from Merlot Industries?]
[Most likely but that doesn't explain the change in Grimm. I'm sure it wasn't Salem who did that, so it was probably science and not magic.]
Mercury's scroll began to ring. With a groan, he grabbed it from his belt. "It's Oobleck."
"Well, it has been hours since we last called him."
"So I have to answer?"
"Think of it as practice for when you're on a job and we call you."
Mercury gave her an odd look then. He hit the button.
"Students. Report in."
Yang gave him a very firm stare. He got the message.
"We went underground at Mountain Glenn but we found some…unusual Grimm. Rather than our original objective, we followed their trail and have come out in Forever Fall. There are still some in the area, so we're tracking them."
"Forever Fall? The tunnels in Mountain Glenn don't connect to Forever Fall. That is a very worrying development."
"Mercury did say the tunnels looked different than the normal ones," Yang chipped in.
"They were certainly newer," Mercury noted. "They didn't look official and they definitely weren't prettily done."
Yang chuckled at that.
"Mercury, not everyone has Taiyang's sense of perfection when it comes to construction." The two of them shared a smile. "So: to surmise. The security nodes were tampered with by someone who placed the symbol of Merlot Industries upon them. That same symbol was found on cages that are thought to be used to capture Grimm. You have encountered what you describe as unusual Grimm and have followed their trail down a tunnel that shouldn't exist."
"That's a good summary."
Mercury offered the scroll to Yang. She took it and the winged fox aura animal appeared. It took a moment for her to catch on, but she didn't think that was cheating provided he stuck to scouting.
The fox flew off.
Yang continued. "Professor-"
"Doctor."
"Doctor, the Grimm we're seeing…" The screen locked. Yang sighed and unlocked it again. She sent the photos off, but Mercury nudged her before she went back through the album further. Git. He had some great photos saved. "They're bigger, stronger and can do things animals and Grimm shouldn't be able to do."
"Putting it mildly," Mercury murmured, his eyes still closed. Then he opened them with a grin. "We'll have to get back to you Doctor. We're going on a trip." He took his scroll back and hit the end button.
Yang matched his grin. "Find something good?"
"Oh yeah." It was at this point Ruby finally killed her weird Alpha Beowulf. "It's not too far, but I want to be discreet…if you even know the meaning of the word."
"I can be discreet!"
"I'll believe that when I see it."
Emerald had finally brought hers down by catching a green Creep and swinging it into the big guy. "What's this about discreet?"
"There's a huge ship not too much farther. Cargo includes cages with Grimm inside and shipping containers. We need to hurry if we want to catch it and I don't think we want to be seen."
Ruby bounced on her heels. "Well, what are we waiting for?" She dashed off.
"Try to keep up Yang," Mercury dared before he went after her. Without her Semblance, he would overtake her quick enough.
Yang never backed down from a challenge, even when she knew it was a hopeless one.
"How do they do that?" Emerald asked. She sounded almost jealous…but mostly sad.
Yang pushed the emotions away. She had been managing too. "Because they're Ruby and Mercury. They just…look forward for different reasons. That's all we can do. They're just…better at it. Sort of."
"Lucky devils."
"But I'm more worried about you Maia. You've been acting odd all day."
Emerald just folded her arms. She opened her mouth, then swallowed whatever snap response she was going to say. "I'll get over it." Yang just gave her a look. "Dreams last night."
Oh.
"Do you want to talk about them?"
Emerald thought about it. She shook her head once. "Don't ask Yang. Not you."
"Dad?"
"Even worse."
"Uncle Qrow?"
"Probably just as bad."
"Is this about my mom?"
"No."
That was said a little too quickly for it to be true.
…
Yang let it go. "Mercury's the one who doesn't get attached easily so him. Yes, he screwed up and no doubt we're going to make Fluffy regret it. Did you know you can dress dogs in clothes?"
That got through to her. Her face went completely blank. "You can't be serious."
"Sure I am. Personally, I think he would look good in pink."
Emerald choked, trying very hard not to laugh. She wasn't doing too well.
"Should we ask Coco for advice?"
"Don't Yang. We had better go before they decide we've been swallowed by a giant marshmallow or something like that."
"…Really?"
"We're too good for Grimm."
Yang decided that she and Ruby had been a very bad influence on Emerald. "The day we're having, I wouldn't be surprised if we did come across a giant marshmallow." In fact, maybe it would be life mission to see one in a ridiculous context.
Ruby and Mercury had waited for them behind a blue crate. They didn't say anything. Ruby put a finger to her lips and pointed to an empty crate near the crane that was loading the ship. Yang couldn't see any people, but she agreed with the sneaking.
But she did stick her tongue out at Mercury.
[Behave,] Emerald nudged her.
Ruby nodded firmly. [I'll tell Zwei on you.]
[Why am I the bad guy here? He started it.] And this time, he actually had.
Yang very nearly lost her footing. It felt like the very container was trying to get rid of them. Ruby wedged herself between Mercury and Emerald. Those two had crouched down a little and Yang quickly followed their example. That stabilised her a lot and the floor didn't tilt any more. A thud and they were on the ship.
Ruby went to leave. Emerald caught her and shook her head.
Yang glanced at her. [Until we're moving or until we land?]
[Until we land.]
If this was going to be a long trip, it was also going to be a boring trip. Yang was bored already and the ship hadn't even left yet.
[Fancy a game of I spy?] Mercury asked with a really annoying smirk.
[Better than Grandma's Footsteps.] At the moment, Emerald's heels and Mercury's metal boots weren't making any noise on the metal floor. That would attract attention.
[Name a film I've seen.]
[Why?] Emerald folded her arms.
[Do you know a better way to pass the time? I can play memories though my aura, so I can play a film. So name one I've seen. I'll keep an eye out.]
Honestly, Yang had forgotten Mercury could do that.
Still, it took until the ship took off for the girls to agree on something. It had better be a long trip because it didn't get good until halfway in and Mercury refused to fast forward it. Unreasonable brat.